vehicle charge off

[treschic]

i co-signed for an auto loan in 2003. while reviewing my cr, i saw that the loan is being reported as a charge-off/ collection, with last activity of nov 2007. i called the oc, the lender, and was told that the vehical was reposessed, and sold at auction for 2000, for a remaining balance of  $3100. he said that if i can pay $2000 by the end of this week, he could remove the interest and other charges. he says that he would change the status to paid, but cannot remove the lates. i have lates from jan-nov 2007 consecutivly. do you think there is anything else i can do? i already wrote them letters asking to remove the status from charge-off to paid, and the lates, but never received any response. the original applicant swears he paid the car off. but, he's a liar obviouslly. what is your advice of where to proceed? i can pay the $2000. i'm just concerned, because i will actually need to purchase another vehicle within the next few months. 

[Anonymous]

I'm not an expert, but if it were me, I'd ask the person you co-signed the loan for proof of payment. With proof of payment you can then forward the information to the loan company. Hopefully this person truly isn't lying to you, but it sounds as if you're sure he/she probably is lying.

Hopefully someone else will be able to post better and/or more advice for you.

[fishbjc]

Having an auto repo on your report is a killer in the auto industry.

Let's HOPE your signer isn't lying & can provide proof of payment. 

Make sure you get, IN WRITING, that they will correct your status with $2,000 payment, otherwise they could be pulling a fast one.  Make sure you get all of those lates off your reports as well.  He absolutely CAN remove those lates. 

[fishbjc]

If you can find financing with those auto lates, you're probably looking at a very high interest rate. 

See if you can get that creditor to work with you.  Did they send you letters to advise you, as a co-signer, of this issue?

[treschic]

well, i'm 99.99% sure that he is lying.  He says that he still has the car and paid it off, the financing company says that they repoed in july 07, and auctioned it off already.  anyways,

This is an update.  I got a response back for my PFD request, and they pretty much said no.  this would constitute fraud to delete history or to delete the account period, this was from the president of the company.  Anyways, so, I spoke back with the supervisor who originally said that he would change the status to paid from charge-off, but said he couldn't delete the late payments.  So, I called today just to pay the $2000.  I asked him to fax me a letter, detailing what we were doing, that the $2000 would constitute payment in full and the account would reflect a paid status.  Well, when i got the faxed letter, it said that the account would reflect settled.  When i questioned him about our arrangement yesterday, he said he thought he could change it to paid, but since I wasn't paying the full amount due, its "technically not paid in full" but settled.  and that he could only change it to paid if i paid the entire $3100 balance.  Well, anyways, i told him thank you but no thank you. he tried to tell me that settled was the same as paid.  Which, i probably would've fell for previously.  what are my options now? am i SOL?  (i don't mean statute of limitations) will a settled remark reduce my credit score? anyways, i didn't pay, mainly because i don't have $3100, maybe next month i can pay it off, but not now.  These are antics i'd expect from a ca, but not the financing agency.  anyways, what should i do now?